El Paso ISD part of new inquiry: FBI investigates $3.2M spent on truancy, gang prevention
A top administrator in the El Paso Independent School District claimed in 2007 that he was demoted after he warned officials of illegal activity in millions of dollars of payments to a vendor whose owners were later charged with public corruption.
The EPISD school board president says the FBI is now investigating the contracts the district had with the vendor, New Beginnings of Texas, which is controlled by Ruben "Sonny" Garcia and Cirilo "Chilo" Madrid. They were indicted on federal corruption charges in 2011 for work on a county contract performed by another Garcia company.
The retaliation allegations made by former Pupil Services Director Arturo Peralta are contained in documents obtained by the El Paso Times through the state Public Information Act. School district officials had tried to keep those documents secret before being ordered in February by the state attorney general's office to make them public.
In the 2007 documents filed as part of a grievance with the district, Peralta wrote that he believed then-Superintendent Lorenzo Garcia and other district officials retaliated against him because he had reported to previous Interim Superintendent Robert Ortega and Chief Business Officer Ken Parker "that the adversity and actions being taken in the New Beginnings Program were illegal and being conducted in violation of state and federal law."
http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_20097753